like this in my life. >> the governor of new jersey calling the damage unthinkable, homes destroyed, road flooded, trees toppled, at least 50 deaths now blamed on superstorm sandy. those stories straight ahead. we're going to look at all that damage and talk school closings. good wednesday morning, i'm megan pringle. >> i'm charley crowson. the storm knocked out power lines for 8 million people across 17 states, as far west as michigan. and today president barack obama will head to new jersey to take a look at the damage caused by sandy. >> yeah, it's bad up there. and abc 2 news' renee marsh is live this morning in hoboken, new jersey, an area that was hit very hard. she's going to show us some of the damage and tell us how the national guard was called in. >>reporter: well, president obama will visit hard-hit new jersey today, and in this hoboken area, the mayor says that some 15,000 to 20,000 people remain trapped inside of their homes because of flood waters. now the national guard is here

to help rescue some of those people, but this is just one of many neighborhoods still suffering from sandy's wrath. residents across the eastern seaboard are beginning to pick up the pieces in the wake of superstorm sandy. >> i lived here for 39 years, i've been through several hurricanes going back to gloria, and i've never seen anything like this at all. >>reporter: sandy made landfall near atlantic city, new jersey monday night, bringing a storm surge that flooded the jersey shore. new york subway tunnels and laguardia airport. rescue efforts are still under way to save those left stranded. this woman and her mother rode out the storm trapped in a car. >> there's nobody around, you don't know where to go. you're trying to get out the window. it's freezing, the wind is blowing. >>reporter: new jersey governor chris christie said residents of his state are devastated. >> this is a monumental task that we have in front of us, so

i'm asking this week for their patience and then the week after that we're going to need their resill yens as we begin to go back to work and rebuild our state. >>reporter: president obama signed disaster declarations for new jersey and new york, clearing the way for federal aid. >> i want every agency to lean forward and make sure that we are getting the resources where they need -- where th're needed as quickly as possible. >>reporter: sandy is moving northwest bringing flooding and winter weather to the mountains. some power has been restored. still, though, more than 6 million people remain without power. the utility companies, they say it could take a week, it could take more. we are live in hoboken, new jersey this morning, i'm renee marsh. back to you. >>such incredible images, not only from new york and new jersey, also here in maryland. western maryland took us all by surprise with all that snow.

>> more than a foot of snow out there. they've got an extreme weather warning out there now. closer to home, though, we've got a number of school closings, information you need to know as you start your wednesday. sheree johnson is going to have an update coming up of all those school closings. but, of course, everyone knows how the weather is going to be so you can get to cleanup. >> let's send it over to meteorologist lynette charles. lynette, i know it's been crazy. this is finally a sigh of relief, but will people get out in their yard and be able to clean up today? >> yes, they will be able to clean up today. you see the radar behind me, you see some green and different colors going on. let me step out of the way so you can see what's going on. across our area we are dry, but back off toward the west, that's where we are dealing with a little bit of a mixed bag. you can see the pinks as i'm zooming in, this is cumberland and also hancock where they're dealing with some mixed precipitation across that area. also some rain falling down in virginia this morning. now, with this i'm not going to rule out the chance for some showers to work their way into the picture as we go throughout the day. but it will be a mainly dry

day, so people really will be able to get out and start that cleanup, nothing like yesterday where it was just that steady rain all day, heavy in some spots. it's a different day, it's cold today, much colder. you can see where they're getting some snow back into western maryland. don't be surprised if you wake up this morning and you step out d about and there is some patchy fog to contend with in some spots. reisterstown temperature coming in at 38 degrees right now. winds pick up into the afternoon, i'll call it breezy, not windy. we'll take that. 43 degrees right now in annapolis and we have a dewpoint of 39, the winds are light out of southwest about three miles an hour right now. this is what you can plan your day to. we will wake up very cold this morning with that temperature at 41 degrees. by lunchtime we'll be at 49, still very chilly adged breezy as we go into the afternoon with thathigh temperature only at 52 degrees. let's get a check now of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. definitely going to have to

bundle up for trick or treating tonight. it's going to be a cold halloween. unfortunately we are dealing with some storm damage across our region. in baltimore county, there was actually a partial building collapse. it was the whiskey plant right in cockiesville, so northbound york road is now shut down at railroad avenue. if you are traveling in the area, you will need to stick with warren road, scwann road or 83 instead. more storm damage up in phoenix, right along sweeder road at glenn hime road. in white marsh there's still a little bit of flooding at days cove road. definitely watch out for that. if you are traveling out on 95, this is live look right now in east baltimore -- actually, downtown baltimore, at 395, everything moving right along. this is what the west side of the beltway looks like at liberty road. no delays here as you do travel down towards 95. the rest of the beltway going to be in great shape from parkville all the way up to towson. and if you are using the jfx this morning, you're looking at a typical 11-minute ride right now traveling southbound from 695, all the way down to fayette street. that is a a look at your abc 2

time saver traffic. megan and charley, over to you. there are still thousands of people in our area without power this morning and this is all from sandy. >> bge has been working around the clock to get everyone online. and abc 2 news' linda stow is live in towson with an update on that progress. linda, where do we stand right now? >>reporter: they made considerable progress overnight. i'm just checking the numbers here on my phone. right now we have just over 85,000 bge customers who are still without power. they've restored power to more than 262,000 homes. the bulk of those outages remain in rockland county, hartford county and baltimore county, the were the hardest hit areas. i want to show you something here, we're at the corner of hillan road and stevenson lane in towson. you just saw that car blow through that intersection. when the light is out, we want to remind you, you are going to find some traffic lights that are still out, you need to come to a complete stop and treat this as a four-way stop. the governor -- we heard the

governor say yesterday it is maryland law that you do that. the thing that's making it tricky, the sun isn't up yet, it's still dark outside, that's why you may be going and you might not even realize there is a light. that's why you want to take it slow this morning as you're out and about, taking the kids to school, as you're heading to work, perhaps you have a high school kid, a college kid who drives who are going to go to work. you want to remind them you what that car just did. don't blow through these intersections, you need to come to a complete stop. as far as bge restoration goes, we're told there was about 30,000 customers who were brought back online overnight, that's a considerable amount. bge has what are called safety standby crews, about 1,000 members dedicated to that, and so if you see a downed power line, a tree on a power line, something that looks unsafe, you call bge and let them know. they will send out a safety standby crew. they will literally stay there until the crews come out and take care of that situation. so, again, if you have an outage that you need to report

or a downed power line, a downed tree, something that isn't safe that you see, you can call this number, it's 877- 778-2222. a lot of out-of-state crews still here helping. we're told they will stay here until everyone is back online. it's likely those crews will then head up north to new jersey and new york to help with the restoration efforts there because we've heard millions are still without power up on the east coast. but, again, if you come to a traffic light that is out, you need to come to a complete stop and treat it as a four-way stop. a lot of lights are still out, like the one here at stevenson and hillan road in towson. live in towson, linda stow, abc 2 news. we've been telling you about power outages all morning long here on "good morning maryland." >> because of that several schools in our area have decided overnight or very early this morning to close for the day. so abc 2 news education reporter sherree johnson is at the live desk with all the new closures. what can you tell us? >>reporter: megan and charley, yes, we are getting all new

information on the school closings. some schools are closed this morning because of those power outages. we'll start with baltimore city schools, closed. the district office is open and essential staff must report to work. baltimore city schools actually hopes to reopen tomorrow. hartford county schools are closed. 18 baltimore county schools are closed, 17 anne arundel county schools are closed. all other schools will open two hours late for students and staff. 10 howard county schools are closed, one school is closed in cecil county. and you can head to our website at abc2news.com for a complete list of those schools that are closed. that story is actually in the slide show. and the parents can also sign up for school closings with e- mail alerts. all you have to do is click on the weather tab here and then head over to closings. and that'll give you a whole entire list of those closings. and then you can just sign that form and have them e-mailed to you. we'll continue to update this

list. sheree johnson, abc 2 news. in democracy 2012 coverage this morning, early voting will resume across most of maryland. because of sandy, the governor was forced to cancel voting on monday and tuesday. >> he had to make up for lost time, early voting will be extended through friday with additional hours. the facilities will now be open daily. this is happening from 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 in the evening. and, by the way, election day is tuesday. the school bell won't be ringing in hartford county. >> yeah, coming up in a bit, the chain saws will be buzzing out there. it's a day of cleanup. we're going to take you there, showing you just how bad things are. and those halloween decorations, they may be in somebody else's yard and your halloween costume is going to be covered with a coat, but trick or treating still a go. some things to think about before you head out the door. and sandy is pushing away, but we are left with some cold temperatures. i'll tell you if there's a warmup in the forecast coming up.

no school in hartford county today, but the chain saws are going to work early. >> crews are cleaning up all the damage caused by sandy. about 15,000 people remain in the dark. some people there have been without power since monday night. >> and then we haven't had power since, so we've just been making the best of it. >> we are he a bundling up and -- we're bundling up, that kind of thing. >> bundling up, we have a wood stove we've kept running and eating things out of the can. >> old school, going back to the 19th century. the county says it's opening up the county landfills today so residents can bring in their yard debris, starting to clear things out. stories we'll be hearing about for days to come. >> when we have a situation like this, you really want to

know it's not going to rain so you can drag all the debris out of your yard. is that the case? >> i'm going to keep a slight chance for some showers in the forecast for today but mainly we stay dry. i wouldn't be surprised if we get a peek of sunshine, but don't look for sunshine until later in the week. this is what he woo have right now, you can see the remnants of sandy just spinning. and basically now sandy is moving to the north. so it's in new york, western new york and still dropping lots of rain in some spots but not across our area. what we're dealing with this morning is mainly dry times. we do have lots of clouds out there and we we're also dealing with plenty of cold air. you have to go back towards the west and also down south into virginia where they're dealing with some showers, and that's why since this is on the radar this morning i'm going to keep that chance for some showers in the forecast for today. but like i said, i'm going to reiterate because i know you want to get out there and clean, it should stay mainly dry for today and cold. look at these temperatures right now in manchester at 37 degrees. mount airy 39 degrees.

we're looking at 41 in grace, more of the same in easton. sparrows point at 41 and edgewater coming in at 40 and cambridge at 42 degrees this morning. these temperatures won't bump up that much as we go into the afternoon, so keep that jacket around. i'm not even going to say jacket, i'm going to say coat, you need that full warm winter coat this morning because it's cold outside. look at future trend. clouds will be in the forecast for today, and also tomorrow we'll start to get more sunshine. that's going to be the trend. each and everyday we should see a little bit more sunshine in the forecast for us. but this is what it looks like as we go through the afternoon, 52 degrees, that's your high, chilly and breezy. those winds will pick up through the day, through the afternoon, through the evening. 38 degrees for this halloween night, so make sure you really bundle it up. and this is your seven-day forecast, improving conditions will happen, especially as we go into the weekend. let's get a check now of the abc 2 time saver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >>reporter: good morning, lynette. 38 degrees? it's going to be cold. i hope everyone has warm costumes for tonight.

unfortunately we are dealing with several accidents. we have trouble in howard county. there's a crash right now on the eastbound lanes of route 32 at route 1. and in northwest baltimore, we are dealing with an accident on northern parkway that's going to be right at wabash avenue. if you are traveling in baltimore county this morning, we do have a partial collapse of the whiskey plant in cockiesville. it has shut down the northbound lanes of york road right at railroad avenue. you will want to use scwann road, warren road or even 83 as your alternate routes. this is what 83 looks like right now in hunt valley. everything up to speed, no problems from scwann road down to the beltway. if you are using the beltway, here's what it looks like in parkville. 11 minutes normal drive time right now to travel the outer loop from 95 all the way up to 83. and the west side of 695 is nice and clear, no delays, you're looking at an 11-minute ride as well, traveling that outer loop from 795 down towards 95. that is a look at your abc 2 time saver traffic. megan and charley, over to you. parents, it looks like the storm won't keep your kids from collecting candy tonight.

the mayor in baltimore city will meet to talk about safety but last night they told us everything should be okay for the kids to go out. a number of counties agree and say it's safe for kids to trick or treat, but they're urging parents to use good judgment. baltimore county is leaving it up to the communities, so be sure to check with your neighborhood association before heading out the door. before you do head out the door and do some trick or treating, be sure you have some safety tips in mind. the experts are weighing in on how to stay safe. >> you want to make sure that your own house and your neighbors' houses are child proofed for safety. that means all of the stuff that you accumulate in the front yard, around the front walk need to be cleared out. >> experts recommend clearing your trick or treat trail of wet leaves or hoses, toys, lawn decorations, anything that a child could slip on. and be sure to restrain those pets and make sure that the outdoor lits are working. replace any burned out light bulbs so everybody can see. parents, are you looking

for something to do this halloween? if so, why not a ghost tour? >> abc 2 new's eric nielsen tells us about one going on at fell's point. >>reporter: fell's point has a reputation for fun, wild nights. the streets packed with saloons and bars is a great place to find some spirits. >> there's a lot of spiritual activity that tends to occur on this little alley. no one really knows why. >>reporter: tim pagey with baltimore ghost tour says it could be a portal to the after life. it's rumored that up to 300 bodies? >> after the plague of yellow fever are buried right here underneath where we stand. >>reporter: to me that explains why there's so much unresolved paranormal activity here in fell's point. based on folklore and word of mouth, tim walks these streets, pointing out the unexplained. >> sometimes you'll see a gentleman who kind of looks out of time, out of place, walking very slowly up the street towards and he looks back behind him and he disappears. kind of like he's looking

toward his death and looking back toward life behind him and choosing between the two and in the end death always wins. >>reporter: at the fell's family tomb, tim admits his own fear of the unknowns. even if you work around ghosts, it's always terrifying. >>reporter: whether you're looking for spirits in the glass or walking the streets, fell's point has both. >> what it's all about is uncovering the mystery and telling people about how much mystery still exists around here, never suspecting right beneath your feet is over 300 years of the most haunted history in baltimore. >>reporter: eric nielsen, abc 2 news. the storm was dreus, but the cleanup -- dangerous, but the cleanup could be dangerous too. >> we have the video that's going to give you an idea of just how bad it can be. how did you ride out the storm? if you had power, there's a good chance you may have watched a movie. we'll let you know new numbers of how many people used netflix. there's a pleasant sign. >> i know, we could all use a break, right? let's go to st. croix, at least

right now we'll show you a picture of it. we can dream, right? we'll be right back.

everyone new video for you this morning showing a crane that partially collapsed during the sandy super storm. take a look. the crane still teetering over the new york city skyline. people living nearby were evacuated. new york's mayor says inspectors [ inaudible ] >> sandy brought down power lines, we've seen it. we want to show you some video of just how dangerous it can be. check this out, a car being zapped by a power line. look at that, and then an explosion. this happening in brick township, new jersey. no word on whether or not anyone was injured. but you can definitely see this is why we always say don't touch a downed power line. also take a look at this, this photo from an i-reporter near the community of orange. the reporter says they were driving when he saw this photograph and had to take it. he says a rot of trees and power lines are down in his neighborhood. this video incredible.

take a look at this picture showing the strength of superstorm sandy. you can see the cars, some of them stacked on top of each other in a parking garage. and notice how high that water is. look at that. it's incredible. sandy has closed businesses and shut down a number of offices. >> yeah. and for those of you who got to stay home, how did you spend your time? perhaps it was by watching tv. get this, netflix saying that their viewership doubled on the east coast during sandy. i think this is probably a no- brainer, we can put two and two together. they saw a spike in the number of children's movies being streamed, so keep in mind many of those kids were out of school and the parents were probably sayingwatch a movie. the most incredible video from the aftermath of sandy has been seen, and then you see something else. >> you'll definitely want to stick around to see this because we've got some amazing video to show you of a tree getting ready to topple over. ♪

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ocean city business owners, they are wasting no time picking up after sandy blows through the town, basically making life a little harder for them, but at this popular beach town, they say they're going to get things back to the way it was. >> we are now in cleanup mode. this is going to be the story for days to come.

also power outages remain a big story and, of course, school is out for a number of counties. good morning to you, maryland, and happy halloween. i'm charley crowson. >> i'm megan pringle. thank you so much for joining us. we can finally breathe a sigh of relief because of sandy, but, of course, there's a lot of cleanup today and as charley mentioned, power outages are a big story feangting schools. so if you're curious whether your child's school is open or not, you can go to abc2news.com and check it out. baltimore city is closed. lynette is standing by with a much calmer forecast with us. you get to breathe a sigh of relief as well. >> yeah, we all do. that's some good news. also the good news is the cleanup will begin today and the weather will cooperate for the most part. so maryland's most powerful radar, not picking up on a whole lot right now. i know you see that big blob of green and some pinks mixing in. well, that's in western maryland around hagerstown right now, and we also are starting to see that around virginia, trying to inch its way into d.c. i am going to keep a slight chance of some showers in the forecast just because of that, but mainly we should stay dry as we head